Ginny's Death, November of 2008
After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry had originally made 12 Grimmauld Place his home. He liked how close it made him feel to Sirius, his deceased godfather. However, even before marriage Ginny had made it clear that she disliked the very thought of raising their children in a house with a portrait of a crazy woman constantly screaming her dislike of them all permanently stuck to the wall. Less than a month after their wedding, due to the malfunctioning of an equally permanent security measure put in place by the late Alastor Moody, Ginny finally won the argument and the two moved into a lovely three story house just a few blocks away from Harry's parents' house in Godric's Hollow. Upon becoming an auror, several options where presented to the Potter family in order to make this house more secure. Of course, just by being associated with Harry Potter the house was already outfitted with some level of protection. The current Minister for Magic urged the couple to request the Fidelius Charm just as Harry's parents had in order to keep them protected from the escaped Death-Eaters. Scoffing at the idea, Ginny reminded the Minister of how many children in the family they'd have visiting each week. It wouldn't be very hard at all for a Death-Eater to get one to slip up about the location. One of the measures that they did decide on, however, was a spell that restricted the people that could apparate in and out of the house's direct property. Only family members directly related to Ginny would have instant access to the house. Their floo network was also highly restricted; it's only access points being in Harry's office and Molly's fireplace at the borrow. The couple felt assuredly safe in their home indeed: but as the old saying goes, Hell hath no furry like a woman scorned.
It had happened as an accident, or at least that's what the newspapers reported, though even Harry doubted their truthfulness. Aurors where viciously hunting down the remaining Death-eaters in an effort to rid the world from all reminders of Voldemort's near victory. Rodolphus Lestrange had been cornered in a London alley-way and a five way fight had broken out against the three auror team. Rodolphus and his unnamed partner where both killed in the incurring explosion while only a single auror suffered any serious damage. Upon hearing of her husband's death, Bellatrix lost all reason she had left for living. She finally abandoned her attempts at finding a new way to bring Voldemort back and threw her life away in a suicide mission to get revenge.
Three months after their youngest child Lily is born, and less than three weeks after Rodolphus' death, Harry receives a letter written by the aged Mrs Figg who'd moved to Godric's Hollow to continue to be Harry's neighbor (she'd found herself rather lonely since Harry never returned to Privet Drive again). The letter warned that a mysterious woman with crazy black hair that Mrs Figg couldn't identify had just entered his house. Calling to his current partner to alert the Ministry of a possible attack by Bellatrix Lestrange on his family, Harry apparates to the street right in front of his house to witness the sinister flashing of green light flooding out from his windows. His stomach dropping to the pits of his stomach, he fights the urge to haunch over and throw up as he races inside his house. Wand out, completely deaf with shock (instead of hearing Ginny's scream he hears his mother's scream echoing relentlessly in his ears, or perhaps Ginny's scream just sounded identical to it), he rushes into the living room and disarms the startled Bellatrix. Ron, appearing on the other end of the room, shoots a spell at the dark witch to bind and gag her. His eyes move to his dead sister lying on the ground and his wand drops to the floor as he lets out a cry of sorrow. Bellatrix can be seen smiling in the background, falling to the floor as she loses balance, and laughing to herself at the scene.
Still holding his wand, Harry falls to the ground to try and shake his wife back to life. Other aurors already entering the house to detain Bellatrix, Harry remains deaf to their attempts to calm him. He's cradling Ginny's head in his lap and crying out helplessly. Ron is kneeling on the ground staring in shock, crying and leaning over Ginny's legs as he's beating the ground in rage with reality. Neither man notice the four year old James standing in the living room next to them, shocked into silence with a teddy bear he'd stolen from Albus dwindling forgotten in his hand. Albus is upstairs with Lily in the baby's nursery room while Lily is crying loudly from her cradle. The two year old boy is trying to reach his sister in order to calm her down while a few silent tears fall from his unknowing eyes. The Ministry aurors pick up James and remove him from the scene, collecting the other two children from upstairs as they scatter to send word to the rest of the family.
(Around the same time)
Molly had just come down stairs to start a pot of tea before bed when she absent mindlessly looks over to check the family clock. A second later, as her mind processes that one of the hands isn't where it's supposed to be, the elderly woman rushes towards it to get a better look. "Oh no, i, it's broken! i, it's broken!" The woman starts sputtering, taking the clock off the wall and opening the case to try and move Ginny's hand off of the deceased mark. Getting increasingly hysterical as the hand refuses to budge, Arthur comes down to check on her. "Molly, what's wrong?" He suddenly stops talking when he gets close enough to see the clock over his wife's shoulder. Reality sinking in, he puts his hands on Molly's shoulder to try and calm her down. "Molly, Molly come to the kitchen with me." He tries to pull her off of the clock which she is now beating over the rocking chair.
"No, no it's broken! It, it says that Ginny's dead, it's broken I say It's Broken!" The woman starts screaming as Arthur finally pulls her away, the clock falling to the ground in front of her. Two Ministry officials appear in their fireplace with a letter in their hand announcing the bad news. The man holding the letter drops it and the two rush to separate the couple – Molly's turned herself around and has started beating Arthur away from her. "No! Get off me, she's not dead it's just broken! Get off of me! She's not dead! She's Not Dead!" Her voice rises in volume with each word. Unable to help, the men finally spell both Molly and Arthur to sleep and they wake up in the same room but in separate beds at St. Mungo's the next day, surrounded by most of their sons.
Twenty minutes after seeing Ginny's dead body, Ron finally recovers from shock and becomes aware of his surroundings again. Several men from the Ministry are fighting against Harry to remove the body, Bellatrix has already been removed from the house (though Harry still had his wand in his hand so if you think he would have done something to her like, I don't know, torturing her like he tried to do when Sirius died, it's still a definite possibility). Ron stands up and backs away from the scene, noticing him one of the men separates from the group and ushers him out of the house. Once outside Ron hears the man talking to him.
"Mr Weasley, sir... Mr Weasley!" It takes a bit to get his attention but he finally looks towards the man speaking. "Mr Weasley, we don't know where to bring Mr Potter's children since he has no family himself. We were going to take them to your mother's house, but she was in hysterics when she learned the news and has been taken to St. Mungo's."
"St Mungo's, mom has been... Oh, yes um, is Hermione awake? No, no she should be here for, for Harry and such, um." Thinking through his family images of everyone going into hysterics floods through his mind. He closes his eyes and shakes his head to regain clarity. "B, Bill can do it. Bill and Fleur, they'll be able to watch them." He places a hand on the man's shoulder to catch himself before he faints on the ground, the world suddenly spinning around him.
"Ron? Oh my gosh Ron, what's happened? What's going on?" The sound of Hermione's voice rings through his ears and he blinks up to see his wife rushing through the yard towards him. She collides into his side to support his still limp body and starts interrogating the man previously holding him up. "What's going on? I was in the middle of a pile of Ministry files and I suddenly got a notification that I'm needed here, there's been an attack? What's happened, is everyone okay?"
Before the man can speak Ron starts muttering something. "No, no Ginny's she's, no she's." Growing heavier on Hermione's shoulder she starts to strain under his weight.
The Ministry man puts his shoulder around Ron's back and lifts him back off of Hermione. Seeing the struggle, a couple of men come over to take Ron to St. Mungo's. While this is happening Hermione is looking around in confusion as to why this all is happening. "Mrs Weasley," The man starts.
"Granger-Weasley," She corrects habitually, instantly regretting that she interrupted him.
"Mrs Granger-Weasley, I'm afraid that your sister-in-law, Ginny Weasley, has been murdered."
"What!" Hermione's eyes threaten to pop from her scull. "How, what?" She repeats, threatening to go into hysterics herself.
"A death-eater named Bellatrix Lestrange..." The moment she hears these words Hermione breaks into a run.
Partially colliding into the door frame, Hermione rushes into the living room where the struggle for Ginny's body is taking place. Harry is reflecting spells to try and stun him as he sends spells back frantically as if still under attack from a death-eater. Falling behind him Hermione announces herself. "Harry, Harry it's me. Harry's it's going to be okay, it's, it's going to be okay somehow, I promise." She wraps her arms around him and pulls him from around Ginny's body, grabbing his wand as he swings it up to cast another spell and ripping it out of his fingers, tossing it away to be collected by the Ministry men. Harry falls back into her embrace and starts trying to explain what's happening, gasping for breaths in between syllables. "I know, Harry, I know it's..." Hermione breaks off and starts crying herself as she hugs him. The men are finally able to remove Ginny's body and then, partially frightened to hurt the famous Harry Potter and partially frightened of being hurt by Harry potter, they vacate the house to let Hermione calm him down. They stay stationed outside of the house until Hermione exits it several hours later, Harry finally having passed out in the living room. Taking no chances the men ready their wands before reentering the house to transport the widowed man to a room at St. Mungo's next to the one currently occupied by his parents-in-law.
(Firstly, sorry I suck at writing so much. Today has been one of those days where I'm just forcing myself to write. I've written a bit in this story already, but what I've written comes after Ginny's death so I thought I should go back and write about her death in detail. I'm also having one of those days where I really can't see the black on write words I'm writing on the computer screen so rereading this travesty is becoming increasingly difficult to do. Secondly, I feel like I may have overdid some of their reactions. But I actually enjoy writing travesty so I really get into scenes like this, and Molly has just lost her only daughter so I feel like her reaction is quite believable. Harry I can just see being completely overwhelmed by the tragedy that keeps occurring in his life. I'll try to go through this and rewrite it on another day.)